Carzy Zarx’s PC Gaming Emporium - Catch Up on All the Latest PC Gaming Related News

[JEMC]

Monday news, the second part:

Diablo 4 is free until January and lets you play as its most busted class, so go on a rampage before Blizzard nerfs it
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/diablo-4-is-free-until-january-and-lets-you-play-as-its-most-busted-class-so-go-on-a-rampage-before-blizzard-nerfs-it/
If your prime years for receiving fun Christmas presents are now behind you, and you've been demoted to socks, ties, and tasty chutneys in your adulthood, then you may want to check out Diablo 4's world of Sanctuary over the festive period. It's a world where inside every treasure chest, side-quest, and underpowered boss that you can pop open like a pinata, there is a pile of shiny gold, weapons, and armour ready to spill at your feet; in Sanctuary, it's Christmas every day.
If this cornucopia of shiny things and the dopamine hit of a massive loot drop sound appealing to you, then good news, because from now until January 3, you can play Diablo 4 for free on PC via Battle.net (and on PlayStation and Xbox, but we don't talk about those here).
During the trial period you'll also get to play as the Spiritborn. The popular new class, which is dominating the leaderboards, was originally only available to play for owners of the Vessel of Hatred expansion, but now you'll get to bop around the base game as a Spiritborn until January. Enjoy the Spiritborn while you can, says Blizzard, because it may be getting nerfed when Season 7 lands on January 21.

Sweet aunt Petunia! GSC just announced updates for the 3 classic Stalker games 15 years after release
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/sweet-aunt-petunia-gsc-just-announced-updates-for-the-3-classic-stalker-games-15-years-after-release/
In what I have convinced myself is the studio's Christmas gift to me specifically, GSC Game World has announced that it's updating Stalker. No not Stalker 2, the old Stalkers: Shadow of Chernobyl, Clear Sky, and Call of Pripyat.
In an encyclical on X, "The Everything App," GSC announced that the classic Stalker games would all be getting a whizzy "next-gen patch" on consoles in 2025. Clean-living PC gamers like you and I don't care about that, of course, but we do care about what it said next: "We know you've asked us to update the PC versions of the original Stalker games, and we also plan to do that."

Larian is looking for Baldur's Gate 3 fans who 'like trying to break things' to help it do some crossplay testing
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/larian-is-looking-for-baldurs-gate-3-fans-who-like-trying-to-break-things-to-help-it-do-some-crossplay-testing/
If you like Baldur's Gate 3, and you like breaking things, Larian has a job for you. The big patch 8 announced in November that's bringing crossplay to the game (along with 12 new subclasses and photo mode) will soon be ready for testing, and developers are looking for help to see how it all holds up when thousands of people come crashing into the party.

CD Projekt had to nerf Ciri for The Witcher 4 after she fully unlocked her spacetime teleportation powers in the previous game: 'Something totally happened in-between'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/the-witcher/cd-projekt-had-to-nerf-ciri-for-the-witcher-4-after-she-fully-unlocked-her-spacetime-teleportation-powers-in-the-previous-game-something-totally-happened-in-between/
First reported by GamesRadar, CD Projekt Red developers have revealed that Ciri's powers of teleportation are going to be seriously toned down or even absent in The Witcher 4⁠—no more zipping around like an anime protagonist for Zireael. She'll make up for it, though, with full Trial of the Grasses witcher potion-chugging and some more impressive offensive magical abilities than Geralt's dinky signs.

Mariah Carey was frozen in an ice block in Fortnite and then she thawed out and sang 'All I Want For Christmas Is You' and everyone went back to shooting each other
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/mariah-carey-fortnite-winterfest-christmas-event-start/
Fortnite got in on the joke that famous five-octave vocalist Mariah Carey hibernates all year before being thawed out before Christmas to sing her holiday hits by having the singer do just that in the game. A giant block of ice was recently added to Fortnite's map, and earlier today it melted to reveal a dancing Carey in a Santa outfit as "All I Want For Christmas Is You" played.
(...)
The great thawing signifies more than the impending Christmas holiday—it much more importantly means that Fortnite's holiday event, Winterfest 2024, has begun.

Voin has the power of a god, anime and black metal album cover art on its side
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/voin-has-the-power-of-a-god-anime-and-black-metal-album-cover-art-on-its-side/
I am a knight made of lightning and black steel. Perched on the parapet of a vast gothic tower, I spy a dozen shambling undead in the valley below. I leap into the air above them, then plummet into the mob, exploding like a thunderclap, arcing electricity and shattered zombie bits in my wake. Sometimes it's cool when a videogame is just a big dumb power fantasy, and Voin—a first-person action RPG just launched into early access—is exactly that, and feels like a solid first step on a year-long roadmap to a full release.

Total War will ditch blood packs, early-adopter faction DLC, and its launcher
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy/total-war-will-ditch-blood-packs-early-adopter-faction-dlc-and-its-launcher/
Roger Collum, vice president of Total War, addressed the electorate via blog post to thank players and explain the team is currently working on a patch for Total War: Warhammer 3's Omens of Destruction DLC.

Stardew Valley patch fixes swears but you still can't get divorced
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/life-sim/stardew-valley-patch-fixes-swears-but-you-still-cant-get-divorced/
Stardew Valley patch 1.6.15 has rolled out on PC, Android, and iOS, fixing a variety of little bugs but most importantly the one I know that both you and I were annoyed by: "Fixed bad-word filtering added to some extra text boxes in 1.6," says the note, "Those are now only filtered on platforms that require it, as originally intended." Which means that you can have all the swears you want in your own personal Stardew Valley on your own personal computer, as God intended.

BioWare considered bringing the hero of Dragon Age: Origins back for Veilguard, but with a horrifying catch: 'Do not let her see me like this'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/dragon-age/bioware-considered-bringing-the-hero-of-dragon-age-origins-back-for-veilguard-but-with-a-horrifying-catch-do-not-let-her-see-me-like-this/
BioWare art lead Matt Rhodes just keeps sharing explosive Dragon Age development details and alternate storylines on Twitter, all with accompanying concept art to boot. This latest revelation might just beat murdering Origins' Sten in a draft version of the Trespasser DLC⁠—it seems BioWare considered bringing our Origins protagonist back for The Veilguard, but they would have been sickened and horribly disfigured by the Grey Wardens' Blight-based Calling.

With Mimimi closing shop, Hooded Horse will take over publishing for Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy/with-mimimi-closing-shop-hooded-horse-will-take-over-publishing-for-shadow-gambit-the-cursed-crew/
With premier stealth-tactics studio Mimimi Games shutting down, Hooded Horse will take over publishing duties for its final game: Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew. The 2023 isometric stealth release was widely considered a pinnacle of the genre and one of the year's best games—PC Gamer called it just that with its Best Stealth of 2023 award.